Chapter 61 Eternal Autumn [3]

"What do you mean broken?" Lloyd asked with curiosity in his voice, causing both Hima and Roderick to feel slightly surprised. In their eyes, Lloyd was just a kid who was going through the steps of becoming a warrior.

He was green behind the ears, so why was he not scared?

That question went through their minds before they quickly rationalized their thoughts.

'Maybe he's in shock?' Hime thought.

'Maybe he doesn't understand what's happening?' Roderick thought.

"Why are you both looking at me like that. You said the portal is broken, but how is that the case if I can still see it? Does it simply not work anymore? Would it vaporize everything that touches it?" Lloyd asked, causing their confusion to rise a little before Roderick sighed and nodded at Hime.

"To explain as quickly as possible, the portal has become one way. People can enter, but they can't leave. Anyway, while I analyze this portal to find out more, Hime will call the rest of our group to check if our portal is going through the same." Roderick spoke before nodding at Hime was was already beginning to dial a code onto her wristband's projection.

The minutes passed quite quickly as Lloyd sat on one of the taller branches of one of the only trees that hadn't broken down yet. Despite the mountains in the distance blocking most of the view, Lloyd tried to his best to watch the sunset from where he lay.

As the sky darkened further, Lloyd turned his attention towards his watch and simply watched as the time ticked down by the second.

[23D:16H:53M:21S till next Void Walk]

"What are you looking at?" A feminine voice entered Lloyd's ears, yet since he knew that no one other than him could see the screen before him, he simply smiled and sighed-

"Nothing. I'm just reminiscing a little." Lloyd smiled.

"Don't worry; we'll get out of here. I'll make sure of that, okay?" Hime smiled while placing her hand on Lloyd's head, brushing his hair slightly before also looking at the darkening sky.

"It's about to get real dangerous here... I suggest that we start moving." Hime suggested before jumping down and calling for Roderick.

After a few minutes of preparing for departure, they all set off for the distance, trying to regroup with Hime and Roderick's group.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you entering an unauthorized dungeon, by the way. When we are out of here, I will make sure to punish you myself." Roderick complained.

"What planet did you say you were from?" Hime asked out of curiosity as all three of them jumped over an especially large fallen tree.

"I'm from planet Deroxa." Lloyd replied, not used to stating what planet he was from since he hadn't left Deroxa that many times in his life.

"Oh, Deroxa? That's where that one prestigious school is located, correct? The one where that all the higher family children go to, or at least the ones in that live in that star system." Roderick asked while taking a side glance to see Lloyd's expression, yet to his dismay, he saw that Lloyd wore a neutral expression the entire time.

"Yeah, I know a couple." Lloyd replied.

"You go there?" The man asked.

"Just graduated. I took part in the entrance ceremony just a week ago now." Lloyd shrugged nonchalantly.

"Where are you thinking of going?" Hime asked out of kindness rather than curiosity. She didn't care much for human politics and standards, but she always made sure to respect them even if she didn't understand them.

"Well, while it would make sense to join the military academy because both my parents were in it, I've gotten a few sweet offers from other academies so I'm not too sure anymore." Lloyd sighed.

"Your parents were in the military? What did you say your name was?" Roderick asked, a tinge of surprise in his voice since he expected Lloyd to be from a higher family.

Of course, his parents attending the military academy didn't automatically mean they weren't from a higher family. Still, it was also very unlikely to find higher-family individuals in a military academy, where all were treated equally and only given special treatment for their hard work or amazing power.

"Lloyd Elrod?" Lloyd tilted his head slightly.

"Elrod?" Hime raised a brow.

"You mean, like, Noah Elrod?" Roderick asked with widened eyes.

"Yeah, why?" Lloyd felt even more confused.

"What do you mean 'why.' Noah Elrod is a 4-star general who married a 3-star general and basically retired despite having the ability to possibly become a 5-star general!"

Raising a brow, Lloyd let Roderick speak without being interrupted, but he felt a little shocked on the inside.

While generals, in general, were considered extremely powerful in the past, especially in times of crisis like the Void Walker attack, their power slowly dwindled over the passing centuries, eventually making it. Hence, their position dropped below the status of a higher family individual.

Of course, 5-star generals and above were still considered to be either equal or superior to higher families, yet even that opinion was beginning to shrink.

The problem was that the difference between a 4-star general and a 5-star general was like the difference between heaven and earth, so the fact that Lloyd's father had a chance to become one only served to shock Lloyd while questioning a lot of things he knew about his father.

"The sun had completely set..." Yet before they could finish their conversation, Hime's voice echoed in their ears, and before Lloyd could process her words, another sound entered his ears as it seemingly closed in at lightning speed.

At that moment, Lloyd felt as if his body had moved on its own since, before he knew it, a blade lay in his hands, barely leaving his watch's storage space in time to slash outwards toward the incoming creature.

[Shadow Enhancment]

Shadows enveloped Lloyd's arm, and with a flick of his wrist, his katana clashed against a rusty sickle.

Looking to his side, Lloyd stared into the flaring eyes of a man with a pumpkin head, yet instead of freezing up in shock like most people would have done after looking into its terrifying eyes, Lloyd narrowed his eyes and put more strength behind his blade by turning his body rather than just his wrist.

This sudden movement pushed the pumpkin man back by several meters, allowing Lloyd to get a good look at it before choosing to attack it again.

It was wearing ragged and dirty clothes that a scarecrow would have worn, and while its sickle seemed rusty and only, at a second glance, even a person who hadn't seen a sword could tell you that it was extremely sharp.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang* *Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Clashing blades with the pumpkin scarecrow thing, Lloyd quickly gritted his teeth before submerging himself into his own shadow, something that was much quicker than usual due to the fact that, for once, Lloyd was completely surrounded by darkness.

Instead of appearing behind it and risking a direct attack from it, Lloyd chose to leave his shadow from one of the branches, allowing him to flip above the creature while soaking himself in complete darkness.

[Shadow Sustenance]

A rare burst of energy traveled through Lloyd's body, and as if his mana had veins, a cool energy moved through his body and made him feel full again.

Everything in his body increased, from his mana pool, to the rate at which the energy he had gained from the rabbits was being digested.

However, like there was a block between him and the first commandment, the energy struggled to further his strength.

As if the energy in his body was sentient, it moved to other places in his body that needed help, hastening his mana recovery by several folds while, at the same time, seemingly increasing his mana pool slowly but surely despite it seeming as if his current amount was the limit.

With a new source of mana, the shadow around Lloyd's arm flickered and moved wildly as if it was an entity of its own, yet at the same moment, it seemed to have calmed down and reinforced itself to completing a single task, and that was to empower Lloyd's arm and make his strikes are powerful as ever.

The shadow moved on its own, crawling down Lloyd's back and enhancing all the muscles necessary to keep balance and strike as hard as possible.

As Lloyd was beginning to descend, the creature opened looked up and opened its maw wide while flames gathered within it, yet before it could unleash it-

[Flame Control]

The flames within its maw disappeared as another flame simultaneously appeared on Lloyd's blade.

Lloyd shot toward the pumpkin creature like a meteor from the sky and sliced down with everything he had.

The creature tried its best to block with its sickle, yet after less than a second of struggle, Lloyd's katana had completely cut through the sickle before cleaving the creature's body in half as easily as a hot knife through butter.

Left in two pieces, both pieces began to fall down, yet before they could touch the floor, they had already been engulfed in Lloyd's red and blue flames, turning its body into ashes in a matter of moments and leaving it to blow away with the wind.

"Phew." Lloyd sighed while returning his shadow to its correct place and turning around, but when he did so, his eye couldn't help but twitch.

Before him stood both Roderick and Hime, both of them standing in front of a pile of dead scarecrow pumpkin creatures, all burning on their own flames.

"Damn..." Lloyd muttered, but due to Hime's sensitive hearing, she could not help but giggle at his reaction.

"Don't get too depressed. It's impressive enough that you were able to kill a Mid-stage first commandment creature on your own,, so you shouldn't compare us to you." She chuckled.

"We're both second commandments so don't worry, you did well." Roderick boasted, making a vein bulge on Lloyd's forehead before he finally turned away from the infuriating duo and began walking in the general direction they were walking before they were attacked.

'To be fair, whenever I fight creatures of a higher commandment, I usually rely on my Void Walker abilities, mainly [Aspect of Void]... I guess it feels good to kill a mid-stage first commandment all on my own.' Lloyd smiled to himself.

They continued walking for another hour or two, where they encountered all types of monsters ranging from undead abominations, creatures that looked like they had been experimented on, and even ethereal-like monsters, like ghosts or wraiths that would attack every now and then.

While Hime and Roderick could have easily killed all monsters encountered, a small part of them was curious enough to allow a monster by for Lloyd to fight. They had seen him use both flames and darkness, and despite not understanding why, they felt like they had barely unearthed the giant question mark that was Lloyd Elrod...

The son of two generals, yet has the eyes, affinities, and class of neither...

A few more minutes passed before they finally saw something in the distance.

"I can smell Felix all the way from here." Hime scrunched her nose in disgust while Roderick chuckled at his comrade.

When they finally came close enough to see the place properly, Lloyd widened his eyes in shock as the view finally entered his eyes.

Mountains of corpses numbering possibly in the thousands lay before him, and on top of this mountain sat a pale, dark-haired beauty, elegantly looking down from her throne of carcasses with her deep red eyes staring deep into Lloyd's very soul.

Despite not having met her or any of her kind before, Lloyd instantly knew what she was, and it was not long before she understood that too.

Lloyd's steps halted, causing the two beside him to turn toward him just in time to see a smile stretch across his face.

"A vampire..."

[Official Artwork for the vampire and Hime in the comments.]